CITY HALL GIVES PUPILS HANDS-ON-GAVEL LESSON

Mayor Nick Moy confessed that he enjoyed the rush of authority that comes from banging his gavel and quieting a racuous crowd.

The 13-year-old Moy was sitting in the mayor's seat of the city council chambers one afternoon last week, presiding over a roomful of classmates who, at times, needed a bit of quieting.

The 8th graders were holding a mock city council meeting, trying to get a feel for how government runs.

About 70 Deer Path Junior High School pupils had assumed the roles of mayor, city council members, city staff and residents. They attended a breakfast with their real-life counterparts and shadowed them for a morning to get an insiders' perspective on government.

The mock meeting even had a few of the trappings of an official city meeting: The agenda was printed in the same style as an authentic city document, the microphones worked, and the honchos-in-training even had pitchers of ice water at their tables.

There were a few differences, however. The hair was a little longer, the shirts and ties were more colorful, and it's unlikely that an "angry resident" has ever graced a city meeting sporting a T-shirt saluting the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

The issue before the council was thorny: Should members yield to "homeowners" who wanted to limit traffic on a road that runs through a park, or side with "commuters" who used the road as a shortcut to work.

The difficulty made the experience more valuable, Moy said.

"Before I did this, I didn't know anything about how anything was run," he said. "By doing this, I learned how everyone has to work together to come to a conclusion."

In the end, the young "officials" opted to limit traffic on the road to emergency vehicles and park employees and build a bridge over the highway to give children a safe way to cross. Although no mention was made of how the bridge would be financed, the decision seemed to satisfy everyone.

Well, almost everyone.

"You've already raised taxes," said Dan Herskee, one of the 8th-grade participants. "Voters aren't too happy anyway, and now you are forcing drivers to take 20 extra minuntes to get to work. People are going to be upset by that."

Herskee was among the pupils who lined up six-deep to make statements and ask questions that, at times, perplexed even the experts.

"It was fun. If we didn't know the answer to a question, then we just made it up," said Jon Ernest, one of the aldermen and the son of Ald. Richard Ernest. "There was a lot of that going around."